Author: CheckW

In the last few weeks, many countries have seen a surge in cases caused mainly by the Delta variant. Even as billions of vaccines have been injected and countries like Israel and S’pore hitting a greater than 80% population being vaccinated (plus a 3rd booster kicking in), the positive cases seem to be exploding.

To be fair, the death rate does not seem to be much higher than the highs achieved last year even as positive cases rising, except in S’pore where it had always been low but it had more than doubled in the last one mth. Everyone is getting confused and scared with all the mixed messaging going on. Is vaccine herd immunity still a viable working solution? What is really going on now?

Two schools of thought had been fighting it out in different countries. For zero tolerance ones like China, HK and Australia, it means a full lockdown to contain the virus. For countries like Europe and the US, they are moving towards an endemic strategy to target reopening with the realization that we have to live with the virus amongst us.

S’pore is one such country that is caught in the middle of both schools of thought. While we have done so well since last year in contact tracing to ring-fence linked and unlinked clusters, we are also trying to move cautiously to an endemic strategy too.

At one end of the argument, there is a call to have more lockdowns to stop the spread to protect everyone. At the other end of the debate, there are calls to continue to pivot to reopening as it is inevitable. Are we taking 2 steps forward and one backwards or is it 1 step forward and 2 backwards?

This is not an easy problem to address and we need to look at the facts and science to determine the next steps. Firstly, the recent deaths have mainly occurred in the most vulnerable group of older people above 60 years old. The ratio of unvaccinated versus fully vaccinated mortality was a factor of 3 to 1 (35 versus 12 deaths). Additionally, almost all of the vaccinated had prior medical comorbidities which made contacting Covid fatal for them. Hence the 3rd booster shot had been rushed out to this group as a way to further protect them from this deadly surge.

Yet we still have about 80 to 100k of unvaccinated seniors. Should the authorities mandate vaccination to this high-risk group now? I believe that it is prudent to do so as a way to further minimize deaths. Most from this group may be fearful of the vaccine, live alone or feel that there is no need for it as they are near the end of their lives. If the government mandates it, then they would have no choice. This will be the best way to save as many lives as possible now.

Vaccine mandates are already starting to show higher vaccination results around the world. Private companies, medical facilities and government agencies are beginning to require them by a certain deadline or face job termination. Some Americans as usual are bitching about 1st amendment rights against the vaccine mandates. But isn’t community safety more important than individual choice in a pandemic situation? The virus does not discriminate and seeks out every weak link to exploit them. Some anti-vaxxers ironically don’t even want to wear masks and continue to fight for their “freedom” to get back to living a normal life. Don’t they get it that they are now the cause of a prolonged Covid winter?

As billions of people are vaccinated, the unvaccinated are slowly becoming the minority. The majority therefore should have the right to restrict their movements in order to contain the spread. Nurses who refuse should not be allowed to be near vulnerable old and sick people as the risk of contamination is high. This is logical fact and science-based. To date, if your livelihood is threatened, the hesitancy to the vaccine is shown to be lowered. You will take it to preserve your job.

Financially and economically, S’pore like all countries have been suffering. National reserves are being used or more fiat money printed to subsidize the badly wounded economies. We are nearing the 2nd anniversary of Covid soon and the pressure to go back to some kind of new normal is reaching breaking point. Mental health is a growing concern for every human being. Zero tolerance of the virus is unsustainable and I believe that an endemic strategy of reopening is the only logical way to go, unless you are China and can create a permanent wall around its borders and just ignore the rest of the world by looking inwards.

If we need to take baby steps to an endemic strategy of reopening, so be it. But we cannot walk backwards. We have to proactively protect the vulnerable using mandates if necessary. We need to lessen the fear associated with the virus as we are now in a better position to fight back using vaccines. Those that still refuse to take it even after all scientific facts and proof had been provided should have their movements and privileges severely restricted for the good of society. Statistics should be changed to just show the critical cases and the load on ICU beds instead of trying to scare citizens with maps of where to avoid in our little red dot.

It is time to make bold moves to chart our next move and to remove the confusion to fight the unseen enemy head-on. 21 months is enough and humanity will and must win.

Delta has thrown every country’s reopening strategy into chaos in the last 3 months. The only Covid startegy of herd immunity via vaccinations is now a big question mark.

Since Dec 2020, it had been the main goal of many governments to roll out the vaccination plan as quickly as possible to stop the virus. We have had the original Alpha variant last year and then it was Beta before the deadly Delta mutation appeared in Q1. It has totally crippled the idea of getting back to normal by summertime as cases surged into Q3.

While the overall death rate seems to be lower than last year’s peak, the spike in positive cases had reached previous highs and seems to be out of control. Israel activated its 3rd booster shot plan a few months ago in the hope of arresting this trend. But at the moment, the data is still inconclusive if the booster protects a highly vaccinated population.

But the US and S’pore have already decided to go ahead with the booster vaccine for the high-risk older age group anyway. It seems like the vaccine protection will wear off slowly after a period of 4 to 6 months. A recent study showed that the vaccine efficacy could drop from 90+% effectiveness to 77%. It was suggested that the amount of other medications for comorbidities that this older group had to take may somehow affect the strength of the vaccine.

In S’pore, the positive case count had been steadily rising from below a hundred to more than 1,500 a day now. The authorities have warned us that it could shoot up to a few thousand soon. New restriction of movements had been announced last night, to reduce dine-in to 2 from 5 persons starting on Monday for a month.

This start-stop approach is baffling all of us as the uncertainty has created a fear of the unknown. The authorities are executing a work in progress endemic strategy and have been trying to figure out each step as new challenges appear. There is no established playbook to rely on. On top of that, we have a population vaccinated rate of more than 82% now. So are vaccines working or are we to blame the remaining minority who still refuse to take the vaccine for this surge?

We do know that regardless of being vaccinated or not, a person can still get Delta and spread it. But a vaccinated person stands a better chance of getting a mild reaction without the need to be hospitalized or to be ventilated. An unvaccinated person is 11 times more likely to die from the virus. There is a possibility that we have to continue to take booster vaccine shots periodically for the foreseeable future as new variants emerge.

Globally, developed countries have sufficient vaccine supplies to provide for their population. But the rest of the world, especially developing ones are still scrambling to get enough of it. Hence in these countries, the chances of a new variant being formed remain high and it may be years before they complete the vaccination process. Polio and measles took a look time to reach total eradication globally and we could see the same for Covid.

Currently, the sudden surge in cases everywhere is worrying for everyone. Are vaccines working and is getting herd immunity via vaccine still the goal? The target was raised from 70% to 80 and even 90 now. We know that Delta is a few times more contagious than the older variants. Deaths are now happening mostly for the older age group with comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes in S’pore. But in the US, it is happening mainly in the unvaccinated group for all ages.

S’pore is trying to take the 2 steps forward and one step back approach to formulate its endemic strategy. This has frustrated both sides of the argument to reopen/close the economy. Going back to a total lockdown is out of the question now but taking baby steps forward seems to be the only viable solution.

Contact tracing is another area that is being questioned now. Seeing unlinked clusters previously invoked fear and the avoidance of certain areas for the general public. But if we are to treat the virus as an endemic going forward, should we still continue to track it so closely? We don’t do it for the common cold, do we?

One interesting comment from a doctor friend was enlightening to me. He had been vaccinated but wants to get covid now because it would be the ultimate natural protection against the virus, on top of the vaccine taken. But he is unable to do so as he belongs to the front lines and has to be tested every week for Covid.

Where do we go from here? I suspect that after our new mini one-month lockdown, we will continue our baby steps towards reopening again. The economic cost of multiple lockdowns over the last 18 months has been highly damaging to businesses and eating into the country’s reserves rapidly. This new lockdown for 4 weeks will cost the government another SGD 650 million of new subsidies.

Those that fear the rising cases in the next few weeks will now stay home and play it safe while waiting to get the booster shots. The rest would try to lead as normal a life as possible within the current restrictions in this new normal.

Would this continue much longer? The last 1918 pandemic took about 2 years to subside and we are almost near the milestone now. With newer technology and knowledge, we should stand a better chance now to defeat the virus and keep it at bay effectively soon. Fingers crossed…

We just completed our second 4 days/3 nights cruise to nowhere this week with our older son. We wanted to have a short vacation with him before he returns back to the UK for the start of his new school term next month. The first cruise to nowhere was in May with our younger son and the older one could not join us as he was doing his internship.

Thanks to Covid, cruises have been given a bad reputation after a number of disastrous episodes early last year. Infected ships were not allowed to dock and were banned from countries while the situation worsen onboard. As more passengers contracted Covid, the elderly became the hardest-hit age group. Little virus information was known then and how they spread. The ships became like zombie prisons which many would have sweared off cruises forever. It eventually resulted in a total shutdown of the cruise industry.

S’pore authorities put on a brave front and then announced in Oct 2020 that they would like to reopen cruises in a controlled manner. Two cruise liners were chosen to operate cruises to nowhere with new Covid guidelines. Passenger capacity was to remain at no more than 50% with strict testing at the start and contact tracing to remain 24/7 while on board.

Genting and Royal Caribbean won the 2 mandates that were up for grabs and they started operating out of the Marina Bay Cruise Centre in Nov/Dec 2020. To date, things have been going on smoothly except for a positive case from the KTV cluster in Jul. That was quickly contained as the virus protocols kicked in and affected persons ringfenced immediately thanks to the strict contact tracing process. Capacity was dropped to 25% for a while as a precautionary measure.

We were lucky as the first cruise was in May. We choose Genting as we were familiar with the Malaysian owned company, having done a cruise with them many years ago when the kids were little. Masks had to be worn throughout the cruise ship except when you are in the rooms, swimming or taking a quick photo outdoors on the upper decks. Complimentary food was alright and Asian focused. Shows were varied and we had the use of the gym too.

This week, we decided to try the other operator Royal Caribbean. It was SGD 1,500 for the 3 of us in a suite room with a balcony. This included a Covid test 3 days before the cruise and another rapid test on the actual day of embarkation. Like Genting, the check-in process took about 2 hours before we finally got into our rooms.

Once we reached our rooms, we had to frantically book shows, dinner and activities using the app provided as it was our first time on Royal. Their processes differ slightly from Genting’s. To start the cruise, we had a nice steak dinner at the Chops Grill with unlmited appetitzers by paying extra. The rest of the days were relaxing and chilling, doing pretty much nothing and eating a lot while sleeping well. By the last night, we were ready to look forward to stepping on dry land again.

During the 3 nights, we had a chance to speak to the employees who were serving us during meal times. I really got to know how tough their lives can be while trying their hardest to please all customers they meet.

Most were sent back to their home countries when the pandemic outbreak happened last Mar. They had to survive on their savings while waiting for a call to see if they can work again. Some were lucky to be called late last year to S’pore when this cruise hybrid window opened. Some only managed to start less than 2 months ago while living off more than 16 months of joblessness.

Life onboard the ship is not as rosy as one would think. They had to do quarantine and vaccination before being allowed to start. The first wave of employees that returned had already spent 11 months living non-stop onboard. During their off days, they were not allowed to step out of the ship due to the heightened pandemic alerts. When they were finally allowed to step off, it was only for about 100 of them at a time – there are 1,500 of them working in the ship at the allowed 50% passenger capacity.

Given that the cruise does a 3 and 4 nights cruise back to back, it means that the ship is occupied every day of the week. Hence when they are not working, they probably had to stay in their bunkers which are mainly located on deck 2, just above the engine room on deck 1 gangway. The ship is 16 stories high and I cannot imagine the amount of claustrophobia they have to overcome.

Facing the passengers, they have to make maximum efforts to please them and not incur bad reviews. We saw many from all nations, coming mainly from China, Phillipines and Europe. Their last port of call was in China before arriving in S’pore in late 2020. Their lives were not a bed of roses and their families need the financial support to combat the virus surge back home. One was so glad that he can work again after being laid off for more than 16 months at home. This was the side we seldom see and it made me more appreciative of their sacrifices in these difficult times.

There was the marathon parliamentary debate on CECA on Tues which I totally missed as we were in the middle of nowhere in the ocean around the Straits of Malacca. I have read some of the newspaper reports and still trying to digest them. But all this was simply overwhelmed by the open mic cockup where an elite school was called “lousy”. Sad that the gist of the debate had been overshadowed by these off the cuff careless comments.

Meanwhile, Delta continues to ravage our tiny red dot. Daily cases are about to break above 1k any time soon as we continue to move towards an endemic strategy. There is still so many uncertainties of the unknown in the next few weeks as we charter our way through this brave new world. We need to move on with life and fight the virus. This is a war that humans cannot afford to lose.

In our country, we have just entered into a new and complicated phase of treating pandemic Covid as endemic even as positive cases surged.

Mixed and worrying signals are causing everyone to be confused and fearful at the same time. Markers like unlinked cases that were being tracked for the last 18 months as part of a zero Covid strategy are supposed to be thrown out the window now? This new wave is happening everywhere around the world now. S’pore is entering into a brave new world as one of the first countries to try to plot an endemic strategy.

The Delta variant has upended everyone’s original plan to defeat Covid by summer. What was a viable vaccine herd immunization objective 6 months ago is now being questioned if it was foolhardy to achieve that aim now. Countries are diverging in their national game plans: to maintain a zero Covid objective OR to permanently live with Covid with its future mutations like any other viruses.

For a zero Covid strategy, you have to ring-fence your country to aggressively stop every new case from spreading. On the other hand, the endemic objective is to gradually reopen to face the new normal, risking an uptick in cases. This is the S’pore dilemma now. Everyone is confused as to what we should do next as the new endemic playbook is being rewritten every day.

Our cases have now spiked up to the hundreds in a scary way and new deaths are being recorded. The authorities had been sending mixed messages and trying to adjust as they go along. The old way of noting new unlinked cases is generating fear while we are told not to panic as this is part and parcel of treating it as an endemic now.

I totally understand the need to slowly go back to normal again as our country is so dependent on being linked up to the global economy. As a tiny red dot with no natural resources, we cannot afford to clam up and ignore the rest of the world forever. China can look inwards to support its domestic economy and give the middle finger to other countries as it has a large population size.

The authorities had declared that we will reopen with caution after the delayed National Day rally in Aug. But yet a few weeks later, like most countries, we are starting to see a spike in the new wave, crippling the economic recovery story. Things seem to be going south very rapidly.

There is a group that suggest stronger leadership to continue the reopening as we had reached the vaccine herd immunity level. It suggests that the majority of vaccinated citizens cannot be held hostage to the unvaccinated minority. Businesses are dying fast due to the crushing lockdowns over the last 18 months. They argue that zero tolerance cannot work if we are to move to an endemic strategy.

The other opposing group is saying that cases and unlinked cases are reaching alarming rates too fast, that we should pause, even pull back to revaluate again. We are getting one or 2 deaths every other day and it is mostly from the elderly and unvaccinated. Even as we reached 80% population vaccinated levels, should we protect the remaining 20%?

The newspapers mentioned today that S’pore only has 1,000 ICU beds and perhaps that should be used as a new marker to determine where we are now. Contact tracing, cluster detection and unlink cases were strategies employed previously. Do we question the need to monitor these as we reopen? If getting Covid is going to be more common and less deadly because of the vaccination, should we just hang our hair down and loosen up gradually?

These are confusing days when the ministers are trying to pre-empt us to face in the coming weeks’ thousands of new cases. How did we suddenly arrive at this stage from less than a hundred per day? What has changed so dramatically and did we miscalculated?

There seems to be very little data for the deployment of an endemic policy. S’pore is grappling each and every day to come up with a coherent action plan. There is no playbook to fall back on and we are the experimental guinea pigs. There is fear and confusion everywhere as we hang tight for the unknown ride to the end of the tunnel which has now changed shape and direction.

I really do not have answers to the many unanswered questions that we had been facing in the last 2 weeks and for the next month ahead. Only time will tell if the action steps taken are correct and some guesstimates will have to be taken by the leadership which I hope will be generally correct in the time to come.

On a side note, I had an interesting experience on the crypto front recently. I noticed that I had received some new coins from one of my crypto exchange accounts in late Aug. This is termed a free airdrop which I assumed was to generate interest in the multiple new ones that were constantly created.

It was XEC, a recently rebranded version of eCash. Out of curiosity and a feeling that it could be the next meme shitcoin to be exploited, I just bought a bunch of them as a speculation wager and just to sit back and watch the fireworks, if it happens at all. It did not disappoint and lo and behold, the value shot up by more than 5x a few weeks later. I sold a little and am now watching the price retracement to see if there is more upside to the wild ride.

We will be going for our 2nd cruise to nowhere vacation next week. With limited options to travel and wanting to spend time with my older son before he goes back to the UK for his studies next month, we thought it will be a nice break for him as he had just finished his internship attachment.

I concluded a 6-month full-time virtual classroom program recently, courtesy of government subsidies. I wrote about it last week as that chapter of my lifelong learning journey closes. What’s next for me now? By writing this down in my blog this week, I hope to crystallize my thoughts and develop a new game plan going forward.

Before I start, it would be much clearer if I explained how I got to where I am now. This would help set the framework for my next steps.

I left my last full-time job in Oct 2017, after a disastrous episode of trying to get back into the banking rat race. Upon starting this new role in Nov 2016, the supervisor that had hired me lost his job in Feb 2017. Things didn’t work out for me with the new boss and we agreed to part ways shortly after.

I then stumbled onto the world of part-time Treasury consultancy work by chance and started to be more open to contract work. An ex-colleague asked me to help him with a Myanmar company as a part-time consultant and I began my monthly trips to Yangon starting from Jan 2018. Since then, I have done a number of other contract work for the last 3 years. My ex-evil banker days had also afforded me a relatively comfortable financial base for retirement to let my career take a backseat. I cannot imagine myself going into a rat race again with political animals trying to kill you at every turn. I came to accept the fact that my halftime journey had begun and I would have to deal with it accordingly.

I knew that I needed to refocus my energies on something else which would have a long runway that I can execute. One of the ways I read in a number of retirement help books that kept being repeated was to never stop learning. With the government Skillsfuture program that started in 2015, I decided that I should embark on my lifelong learning path.

It started in Jul 2017 during my gardening leave. I encouraged a group of friends to sign up for a fun 2 months course on “The Science and Business of Wine”. It opened up my eyes to the big, wide world of learning. Initially, I took anything that interested me. There was “Starting a small business”, Aquaponics and “How to read a financial statement”. Then more serious stuff like overseas trips to Hangzhou for the Alibaba e-commerce training and Blockchain in Seoul. There were also a number of MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) with certification that I took. I made use of the unlimited 90% subsidies given to citizens above 40 years of age. It was a way to take back some of the tax dollars I have paid over my working life.

Given that I was not in a full-time job by then, I plunged into some serious long term student commitment and took up 1 year of night classes to eventually earn a Specialist Diploma in Business Analytics. It felt great when I wore the graduation gown at the graduation ceremony in Mar 2018.

My focus had gradually gravitated me towards new technology like AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing and Big Data – Fintech’s ABCD terminology. With the advent of Covid and its disastrous effect on job security, the authorities started to conceptualize modules with the private sector called SGUnited to help mid-career people switch to the new technologies.

This is where I took up IBM’s AI module in Feb 2021 which I had just recently completed in Aug. Never had I done this classroom training with projects and exams totally online in my life, having only met my classmates only once physically. I guess an old dog needs to learn new tricks.

Where do I go from here now? I kinda like being a full-time student and to continue to learn new skills to further sharpen my saw. It was timely that another new initiative from the Institue of Banking and Finance came up around this time which I encouraged my classmates to apply to. There are a total of 10 specialization routes with internships attached. I applied for 5 of them and am currently waiting for the selection process to play itself out. Successful candidates will be given an offer by Oct and the program will start in Dec for either 12 or 18 months, depending on the technology area. https://www.ibf.org.sg/programmes/Pages/TFIP.aspx

Depending on how things turn out, I hope I can get one of them eventually. The competition looks fierce and it’s a bit messy at the moment as this is the first time IBF is organizing this program. Let’s see how things turn out.

There are a few more backup plans I intend to initiate, just in case. There is a 2 months full-time Digital Marketing program which I am interested in that is being offered. https://form.gov.sg/#!/609555e30142ca0011975f77

Microsoft is also working with the Generation S’pore initiative to start a Business Intelligence and Data Analysis course in Dec which I have expressed my interest https://singapore.generation.org/programs/business-intelligence-and-data-analyst/ .

Nvidia is also working on an AI Innovation and Training program that has a preview session next week which I had registered for https://www.rp.edu.sg/ace/short-course/Detail/nvidia-ai-innovation-and-training-programme?utm_source=Mothership&utm_medium=advertorial&utm_campaign=SOI-Nvidia.

Google also has a new program that includes an internship which I also had expressed interest in https://grow.google/intl/ALL_sg/skillsignitionsg/#?career–ready-with-google_activeEl=career–learning-plans

But some of the courses above may be limited by the fact that one can only take an SGUnited course once and I had already done that for the IBM one. But never say never and I will just try them until I hit a brick wall.

I always believe that when one door closes behind you, many new doors will open in front of you. That has been my case for the last 4 years. It requires proactive planning ahead and one cannot remain still and do nothing. If you do not plan, you plan to fail.

Being optimistic and staying positive helps too. We must not give up but count our blessings every day. There is much to be happy about in this life even in the midst of Covid. The Man upstairs has given us much to be joyful about. Once you are focused on actionable plans, things will eventually work out and it is not for the lack of trying – so says the guy who did 60+ one on one job interviews in 2012 😉 #StayingHappyandHealthy

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/seven-essential-elements-of-a-lifelong-learning-mind-set

Our class has finally completed our last exam for the 6 months IBM AI (Artificial Intelligence) on Wed morning. There is a sense of accomplishment that a bunch of us mid-career folks had survived hundreds of hours of online classes, project submissions and exams. We have just graduated!! Yahoo!!

The government had created the Skillsfuture program since 2015 to help citizens and permanent residents upskill themselves in order to stay relevant to the fast-evolving and changing work landscape. New technologies have accelerated the redundancy of many old jobs where machines can easily take over at a fraction of the cost. Many iron rice bowls are no more and they recognised that all of us older workers needed a little help to pivot to a new and more promising industry.

I joined this Skillsfuture journey in July 2017 after leaving my last full-time job, looking to chart my next halftime path. The more I look, the more I realised that there were so many new skills to pick up which I could potentially be very interested in learning. My lifelong learning journey had thus begun 4 years ago.

https://www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg/content/portal/en/index.html

The first course I attended was a fun one which I took with a group of close friends: “The Science and Business of Wine”. It was a deep dive education into one of our favourite topics in life. We had enjoyed it during our work career and pick up bits and pieces of wine knowledge over the years. This course helped to fill in the missing pieces of that experience. Questions that we never asked or were too embarrassed to even say out loud were answered during the 2 months of classes. We also had a lot of fun too, enjoying the tasting of new wines and meeting new people. “Darling, I have to attend 3 hours of evening classes every Monday night to study and prepare for my exam!” And we tasted at least 3 bottles during every class. Simply heaven 😉

I soon discovered that the additional 90% subsidy for citizens above the age of 40 had no cap and was unlimited. One could theoretically do as many courses as he wants and only required to foot just 10% of the total course fees. I began to become more ambitious in signing up for courses that took my fancy. At about the same time, I happened to stumble into part-time consultancy work as my career had reached a stand still. This freed me up with a lot of time to dive deeper into my learning journey without a full time job.

I immediately signed up for a 1-year Specialist Diploma in Business Analytics that was conducted via night classes. As expected, I was one of the oldest uncle students in the class of 26 and not very tech inclined at all. I needed my younger teammates to help me at times, to figure out which buttons to push. But I managed to pass that and was rewarded in 2018 with a graduation ceremony in formal grad attire 12 months later.

This kickstarted a zealous moi on the lookout for more courses to sign up. By then, I had realized that I was very interested in knowing more about new technology like AI, Blockchain, Big Data and Cloud Computing. I did computer science a long time ago and hated it as an eighteen year old. But little did I know that my interest would return many year later as this area had moved ahead so much and accelerated even faster in recent years.

I strive to absorb as much as I can via this generous Skillsfuture subsidy and attended courses like Alibaba’s SIRS eRetail training in Hangzhou and Blockchain in Seoul. Along the way, I also did numerous courses in topics like aquaponics, reading financial statements, starting a small business and a few fintech related subjects.

These opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities that lies ahead. I am a pretty optimistic guy most of the time and I see more old job losses as opportunities for even more new tech jobs to be created. The main shortfall gap for me : how can I pave a path for myself to pivot into these new technologies?

By now, Skillsfuture had more than 25,000+ courses to choose from!! If you do a keyword search on a topic like photography, you will find more than 200+ courses you can sign up to. Thanks to Covid, the authorities have put aside even more financial resources to allow retrenched workers to upskill and pivot to new jobs.

This is where the SGUnited program was introduced late last year. It was a one time subsidy for unemployed people to become full time students for a period of time for them to pick up new skills. IBM started 2 tracks on AI and Cybersecurity that lasted for 6 months. To date, almost 1,000 students have graduated from this program.

https://webibmcourse.mybluemix.net/SGUnitedProgramme

The first batch of students started in Oct 2020 and I encouraged 2 of my friends to sign up. I hesitated initially as I was still doing some consultancy work in Myanmar. Eventually I decided to sign up in Feb 2021 as they had relaxed the unemployment requirement, allowing students to do part time work as long as it did not interfere with their studies.

The subsidy is generous as I only had to pay $500 (using my Skillsfuture funds) for the $20,000 school fees. On top of it all, I was paid $1,500 per month as a student allowance. My main concern was that we had to do the classes over Zoom due to Covid and becoming a full time student again. But we survived and finally graduated this week.

It has been an amazing experience for me as I fully immerse myself into technology for the last 6 months, studying hard for the modules and finishing projects and exams. We did an AI intro, followed by Enterprise Design Thinking, then Cloud Computing, Data Science and finally AI Practitioner. Most topics are taught via high level conceptualization without the need to do much programming. The projects did help me to better understand how AI works. I can now confidently conduct a more intelligent conversation on Deep Learning 😉

On the human aspect, our class cohort was made up of 21 persons initially. This decreased to 19 as 2 dropped out (found job and personal reasons) subsequently. The fact that the class only physically met once throughout the whole course was a first for me. All project discussions and classes were done via Zoom in the comfort of our homes. It was surreal that we had to fully adapt to utilizing our home Wifi to interact with classmates due to Covid.

Most of my classmates were around my age group with stagnant career paths, looking for something new to reinvent ourselves. A number of the ladies had left the rat race many years ago to raise a family and wanted to come back as the kids have grown. I was the only ex-evil banker in the group as most had an IT background. At times, group discussions were like chickens and ducks talking. Sometimes patience wear thin and resulted in some heated exchanges . But I guess we are all adult enough to resolve any conflicts in order to achieve our project goals.

As we near the finishing line of this program, we talk about having a final beer date to meet up and have a farewell drink up. But alas, it was not to be as the Delta wave hit us. At least some of us had lunch together after the first and only exam earlier in the course where we had to go to the exam center to take it.

We had our Telegram group chat from the beginning and shared a lot of jokes and irrelevant stuff as well as stuff related to the program. We also shared our worries and insecurities as we nevigated the new normal to try to pick up new skills to learn to pivot into new technologies. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity for us to reinvent ourselves at the courtesy of the taxpayers. It’s like taking back our tax dollars after contributing to the authorities for years, to the tune of 29k at one go 😉

I will look back to this episode of my life with fond memories, on how we adapted to using new technology to learn new technology and skills. It has further opened my eyes to the limitless possibilities AI can offer us. We are only limited by our imagination to create new solutions. This tech wave is accelerating and I intend to catch and ride on its coattail into the new beyond. My lifelong learning adevnture will continue as I plot my next phase of this intoxicating journey. Stay tuned.

I spoke about mental health in these Covid times last week. There is one segment of society that is hit much harder then all of us during these times. I had the opportunity to interact with this group a few days ago.

In normal times, a segment of the population is already struggling to survive while they are forgotten by society in general. I am referring to the elderly who are living in old housing estates.

Being less mobile due to a weakening body and with limited financial resources, their daily needs are a constant struggle to achieve. They may not have family support and could be living alone. Their biggest asset is likely to be the apartment they live in, but they may still need assistance to support themselves financially. They may be asset rich and cash poor. Some might not have amassed sufficient retirement funds via CPF or other financial means. The constant money outflow eat into their reserves. A sudden medical need might even consume a large part of it.

The government had started to build a lot of public housing since the 1960s to upgrade many from dilapidated housing to newly built modern high rise estates with running water, electricity and plumbing. My family was one such fortunate party to have moved to a new 3 bedroom flat in 1969 to Toa Payoh. It only cost us SGD 6,900 then, which was still a lot of money for my dad who had to support all 8 of us with a single income.

These housing estates have become old through the years. Some were either upgraded with new facilities or the residents were told to swtch to another newly built flat. My dad was lucky as he managed to upgrade to a new flat in 2008. It was a bigger 4 bedroom apartment which was nearer to the town centre. He had to pay SGD 250,000 for it but the authorities bought back his old 39 years apartment for SGD 191,000. The top-up of another 59k was totally worth it. I always joked that this could have been his best ever investment for a return of 27.7x (6.9 vs 191k)… LOL

Till now, there are still many flats built in the 1960s and 1970s that are still around in the Toa Payoh estate. It has the distinction of being one of the oldest in S’pore. I think Queenstown and Tanglin might be older. There are still many people who had moved in then and are still currently living in these apartments. They would be in their sixties or older by now.

One of my good uni friend had been regularly doing a lot of charity work and was always looking to rope friends in to help her. We chatted and she mentioned that she was on the Meals-On-Wheels program. She tries to volunteer once a week to deliver meals to the doorsteps of the elderly. https://www.touch.org.sg/getInvolved/Detail?ID=f3ea6c70-19d2-4972-9d37-cadec19d2e1f She drives to the centre to pick up the meals for lunch or dinner a few hours earlier to deliver them. Having someone to help her as a runner to bring the food to the apartments while she waits in the car would facilitate a quicker delivery time.

On hearing that it was in Toa Payoh, I was interested in helping as this was the estate I grew up in and I know it like the back of my hand. I used to roam around this small community as a kid with my neighbourhood friends, especially during the school holidays. It was a fun big playground for me to kill time and discover new things in our housing estate.

We picked up 14 individually prepared meals at 9 am on Wed from the collection centre. The organizers had already neatly arranged the pre-packed food with fruits on the tables set out in front of their office. Our distribution work area was confined to a few blocks of flats in a certain area for ease of delivery.

My more experienced friend instructed me on what needs to be done, like the labelling of the meals with various requirements like Halal and non-Halal, brown rice or porridge etc. All the recipients had a metal hook on the front door metal grille for us to hang the plastic bag of food. We are supposed to ring the doorbell or knock on the door. It does not matter if they open the door as some may choose to take their time to collect the food much later. One delivery came with a special request to take a photo as evidence because the person had previously complained that they did not receive the meal.

It was nice to do something good and most households belonged to nice elderly aunties. Strangely, there were very few male recipients. I guess women lived longer and were more open to asking for assistance while men were the opposite. Some do look forward to having a visitor and having small talk with a stranger as their highlight of the day.

The one delivery that stuck in my mind for a long time afterwards was to an apartment that I thought was abandoned. It looked so run down on the outside and the windows were caked with dust. There was no metal grille and the door looks like it was about to fall apart (see photo below). I was worried that I might have gotten the address wrong. So I made more effort knocking on the door a few times to make sure that there was actually someone living there. I even tried to open the door. It would have given way if I had pushed it with force.

Finally, I heard some sound and the door opened. I saw a tiny lady who was very pale looking opening the door and stretching out her hand to receive the meal package. While I was relieved that someone was home, my heart really dropped to see her living in such a condition. I might not have had a chance to peep into her apartment because it was so dark, but it cannot be too far off from what I saw from the outside. This apartment really stood out from the rest on this floor as it didn’t even have a metal grille, which was a standard item for public housing estates.

These are the forgotten people that the community volunteers make an extra effort to support and take care of. My hats off to them. It is just a small effort on my part to help and it really opened my eyes beyond my cocooned world. As we count our blessings in these Covid times, let’s remind ourselves that there are those who are struggling even more during these difficult times. I will try to do more of this with my friend in the future.

One topic that is less talked about during normal times but getting greater notice in these Covid times is mental health.

On and off lockdowns and being confined to our homes over the last 18 months can be a tough transition for many. Imagine being cooped up in your little apartment for weeks on end. The mental anguish of not being fully in control of your own personal destiny and feeling helpless as the world changes and trying to adapt daily is terrifying.

As one sees cases rising and more deaths reported everywhere, one cannot help but be resigned to one’s own fate and become like a hermit crab, locking oneself from the rest of the world. Moving inwards into your own cocoon world takes a while and it might be hard to get out of it later.

We try to establish contacts via technology like online conference calls and face the new normal bravely while complaining of our restricted movements. Trying to maintain a regular daily schedule to remain sane seems to be the best option. I try to run every morning and managed to lose 3 kg. Signing up for a full time 6 months online course also helps. It keeps my mind and body active while I resign myself to the fact that weekdays and weekends merged into one and every day seems the same.

We have more family dining in meals and watching TV together while enjoying multiple bottles of vino in the comfort of our homes as the option of dining out frequently becomes banned. We are thankful that we have a relatively big house where we could all retreat into our individual rooms for personal privacy and only reappear for family meals.

People without these luxuries and being trapped in their small 200 to 500 square feet apartments might really feel claustrophobic. I remember being quarantined in a hotel room for 14 nights last Oct upon my return from the UK. It required a lot of mental strength to pull through. Imagine doing this for months on end.

Each and every human being on planet earth has had to go through this similar experience in various ways since early 2020. There was no getting out of it unless you are super rich and have the resources to get out of the situation via your personal private jet. Each of us has to suck up to it with no end in sight and pray that we can weather this crisis in one piece.

I had finally watched the movie “Roadrunner” this week. It was about the life of Anthony Bourdain and the events leading to him suddenly taking his own life in 2018. He was a well-known producer of food porn shows like No Reservations and Parts Unknown, travelling around the world to bring delicious food to us couch potatoes in our living rooms.

He was the ever cynical ex-drug addict with no care to the world and speaking out his mind to what he sees and calling out the BS. It was a refreshing take to regular food review shows and combines what most of us love – to travel and eat. It was not just an ordinary food show. I look forward to his shows, especially if it was of a familiar destination, like our little red dot. To see what an outsider thinks of us and our hawker food culture is enlightening too.

He had years of substance abuse as a chef till he was in his forties before he became world famous for his first book “Kitchen Confidential” and subsequent TV series. He found that he had talent for critical narration and turned the boring food shows to a new type of food porn entertainment which we cannot get enough of.

This film was about the less than 20 years of success before he suddenly ended it via suicide in 2018. It tries to explain the possible mental condition he was in, on the night itself when he convinced himself that he was incapable of loving someone and probably sank into deep depression. It was something that was always lurking within his psychic that eventually triggered a maniac and fatal decision to end it all.

During the last 18 months of Covid, I suspected that many have also encountered these thoughts and the sense of loneliness and depression, that perhaps it is not worth it to carry on in this upside down world. It is a very slippery slope from here if one does not know how to pause here and seek help.

Having a strong support group of friends and family is very important during these abnormal times. To have people to talk to and share experiences is vital to mental health. This is one aspect which we have overlooked previously and it becomes glaringly obvious in these trying times.

We have to stay strong not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones. Keeping busy with a fixed schedule and routine does help to pass the time more quickly. We humans take some time to adapt eventually to the new regime. In between, we have to create distractions to make life bearable, to get a new hobby or to immerse oneself in new interests.

As we enter into the 2nd half of the second year of COVID, we have to remain optimistic and look on the bright side all the time. Things are better now in 2021 than last year. We have a vaccine strategy and we know more about the virus and its variants than in 2020. We just need to keep our head high and chin up and to continue fighting on.